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Child mental health

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My 5yo is scared of everything and seems to have no confidence

1 reply

JND · 27/05/2022 18:30

Hi everyone, I am new to Mumsnet so not even sure I am doing this right but here it goes!

I have a 5 year old son who is an only child and he is very anxious all the time and scared of anything that is out of his comfort zone, and I am worried that he is missing out because of this. Examples include not going to his school disco because he is petrified, and not playing outside with our neighbours because there is a dog outside (the dog is very friendly and we don’t recall our son ever having a bad experience with a dog in the past. The dog also leaves the kids alone when they are playing).

His mum and I try our best to calm him down and ask him how he is feeling and why he is feeling the way he is but he never tells us why ☹️.

His mum and I are very anxious ourselves however we try our hardest to not show our worries in front of him however I am sure that he picks up on this no matter how hard we try to hide it 😔.

Any tips and advice on improving our son’s confidence or any parents with similar experiences would be greatly appreciated! 😊

OP posts:
Beachsidesunset · 27/05/2022 18:42

The book The Highly Sensitive Child by Elaine N. Aron is excellent. Also, by giving your child as much space and time as they need. My 5 year old has developed into a much more emotionally robust child who now comforts his younger brother when a bee flies past!

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